Happy and healthy: Landis cruises to Bill Brown Invite title, Crestview wins team title
ONTARIO ― Nearly one year ago to the day, New London's Reese Landis was told she was going to have to shut it down for the rest of her sophomore cross country season.
She was battling some health issues and, in an effort to not make things worse, her coaches and family made the decision to put her health first and get ready for track season in the spring.
A year later, Landis is back healthy and happy and is excelling to the highest degree. She walked away from the Bill Brown Cross Country Invite on Saturday with an individual title and was the only runner under 19 minutes at 18:58.47. It was well off her best, but at an extremely challenging course like Marshall Park it was a very nice victory for the junior.
"I was struggling quite a bit today," Landis said. "The girl in front of me (Shelby's Kayla Gonzales) was really pushing me today and helped out with pushing myself. The hills were tough and it wasn't exactly my best race today, but I got to go in and battle someone else and work on the mental part of running. So it was nice."
Gonzales led the majority of the race before Landis caught her in the final trip around the woods and separated herself in the final 400 meters. Gonzales was second in 19:07.29. Landis, who is used to running on her own during meets, credited the competition with Gonzales with the reason she was able to come away with an individual victory.
"It helps so much," Landis said. "When you are by yourself, it is hard to know when to kick in those surges because you don't see anyone in front of you who you have to go catch. With her being right in front of me, it was a lot easier to kick in those surges throughout the race instead of cruising with no one to find."
New London coach Keith Landis, Reese's cousin, has had a front-row seat to some amazing performances so far this year. In the first race of the year, Reese dominated at Seneca East, running an 18:13.90 to take first place by 47 seconds. On Sept. 9 back at Seneca East, she ran an 18:27.10 to take fourth in the Division I race, finishing behind the defending Division I state champion and ahead of the Division III individual state champ.
Not bad for a kid who had to miss the second half of her sophomore season.
"She is a pretty special runner," Keith Landis said. "Last cross country season, we had some health issues that we actually only made it one more week than this last year before we shut it down. She didn't like that, and once we got healthy she followed the plan to a T. My biggest challenge is having her do too much too soon. She had a great track season and this summer, she distanced herself from a lot of kids."
On Saturday, Reese Landis topped one of the best runners in Richland County in Gonzales, who came into the week with two consecutive individual wins at the Tiffin Carnival and Galion Festival, both in Division II races. Running against her was a huge challenge for Landis and one she was proud to have accomplished.
"Credit to the Shelby girl for leading her the entire time," Keith Landis said. "I am excited to get her in a competitive race because she doesn't always get that tight of a race. To have her in that situation and see her react late was big for her. She is great and we are hoping she can stay healthy and hopefully we can make a run as a team late in the year."
Keith Landis said Saturday's race will only help his No. 1 runner in the future.
"She ran 18:13 at Seneca East at a flat, fast course in the first race of the year when she ran alone," he said. "We come to Ontario specifically because it is a tough course to run and it is a challenge. There were some closer options to run at this week, but we came here for the challenging course and to run against bigger schools."
And Reese Landis was still unsatisfied because she finished the race with a slower time than she had hoped.
"The first thing she told me was she was almost over 19 minutes," Keith Landis said. "First, she wasn't almost over 19 and, second, she still ran faster than the old school record that was intact before this season. Our old school record was 18:51, and today, at a tough course, she ran close to that. The magic trick is to stay healthy and see what we can do in the postseason."
It helped to have her cousin as the coach and her grandfather as a volunteer assistant, proving Saturday was a big family effort.
"My family is pretty big," Landis said. "It is super cool because I have family here all the time helping me. My grandpa is a volunteer coach, too, so it is a huge family effort every week."
Led by Landis, the Wildcats placed third overall as a team with 91 points. Alyssa Henry was 15th in 21:47.21, followed by Valery Henry (18th, 22:04.74), Clara Good (23rd, 22:24.19) and Oliva Yetter (43rd, 23:58.79).
Cougars win team championship
Crestview used a balanced effort to win the Bill Brown Invitational team title with 64 points. Audrey Wolford was fourth in 20:37.97, followed by Alina Durbin (11th, 21:38.77), Leyna Gerich (14th, 21:45.06), Emmie Kemp (21st, 22:15.78), Georgia McFarland (22nd, 22:17.61).
Ashland finished sixth as a team with 148 points. Isla McFederick was 25th in 22:48.31, followed by Ava Cline (26th, 22:49.36), Katherine Stefaniuk (31st, 23:16.91), Alex Huckleberry (34th, 23:22.40) and Ava Bracken (47th, 24:19.14).
Mapleton was eighth with 197 points. The Mounties were led by Valerie Klimkewicz (30th, 23:15.69), followed by Gretchen Donley (32nd, 23:18.94), Emily Reisinger (35th, 23:24.77), Faith Lowery (49th, 24:27.80 and Whitney Hopstetter (67th, 25:34.20).
On the boys side, Ashland was second with 71 points, led by fourth-place finisher Andre Harrison (17:14.31). Lukah Will was ninth in 17:28.62, followed by Luke Wash (14th, 17:34.50), Brody Blough (23rd, 18:00.11) and Owen Lemon (34th, 18:47.28).
Mapleton finished fourth with 153 points behind Isaik Schoch, who third in 17:09.44. Next for the Mounties were Blake Gibb (24th, 18:01.74), Jay Ketering (35th, 18:47.59), Dylan Hartzler (45th, 19.08.56) and Sam Schritz (55th, 19:42.01).
Crestview finished 12th behind Cooper Brockway, who was 12th in 17:32.52. James McPherran (108th, 22:10.41), Daniel Hout (131st, 24:50.73), Kaden Walter (134th, 25:29.11) and Nathan Hummel (137th, 26:44.37 also competed for the Cougars.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Happy and healthy: Landis cruises to Bill Brown Invite title
